


She Brought Back Spring

by ariofthesea



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Afterlife, Alternate Universe - Afterlife, F/M, Farmworld References, Multiverse References, Mushroom Bomb, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-16
Updated: 2013-05-16
Packaged: 2017-12-12 00:31:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/805025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariofthesea/pseuds/ariofthesea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Betty never quite knew what she would say to her ex-fiance if she saw him in death.  So what the hell was she supposed to say to an alternate version of him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Brought Back Spring

Betty, who had always been so confident with herself in life, wandered aimlessly in death. God knew how long she had been in the afterlife; her memories of her time alive were beginning to fade, little by little. The last thing she remembered before she died was a blinding green light, and then, nothingness. After that, she had awoken to several individuals, some human, some not, looking down at her and sighing in relief.

Her awakening in the afterlife felt like it happened hundreds of years in the past, if not thousands.

One day, whispers and rumors spread throughout the echo chambers of the lands of the dead. The voices said that an offshoot of a major world of the living that had been radically altered by almighty magic had materialized into existence. The more Betty listened, the more she realized that the voices spoke of _her_ world, and that this “almighty magic” was implemented for a boy’s wish to eradicate an extraordinary evil.

 _A noble idea, but things are almost never that easy_ , Betty thought.

In little time, a new dead world for this altered offshoot of her world (which others called “Farmworld” for reasons Betty didn’t understand) appeared in the void, and began hosting its own population of dead souls. The mention of one particular soul who possessed a level of mastery over ice magic piqued Betty’s interest. Betty went up to the woman who brought up this individual and pressed her for more information.

“What, the schlemiel with the golden crown? Dearie, he practically just got here—”

“That’s all I needed to know. Thanks.”

The woman watched with an eyebrow raised as Betty ran off.

***

Betty knew that the act of traversing to other lands of death carried major risks. She had seen several others attempt the feat; some had been successful, some had not been so fortunate. Yet Betty had never taken a single chance at anything ever since she had died; in life, she had been far bolder and far more courageous.

Much to her relief, she warped to that land of death with relative ease. But her nerves did not calm, for she both anticipated and dreaded the moment she might see _him_ again.

That moment came sooner than she expected.

Betty saw a familiar figure in a familiar tailored suit walking up to an abandoned mansion. She caught up to him just as he was about to open its doors and made a small sound to get his attention. Her heart, if she still had a living one that could beat, would have stopped the instant he turned around.

The man had faded blue skin, an unnaturally long nose, and white hair and a white beard. There was no way Betty could know him; she had never known anyone who looked like that when she was alive. But that scientific parasite that sat idly next to the pens in his chest pocket, that tailored suit, those blue teashades; even the ghostly white eyes behind those teashades seemed familiar...

“S-Simon?”

His shocked expression mirrored hers at first, but then it drooped. In that moment, both stood perfectly still, save for the rhythm of their rising and falling chests and the occasional blinking of their eyes. His mouth opened and closed once, but no sounds left his lips. At last, in a hoarse voice, he mustered two words:

“Hello, Betty.”

Betty recognized his voice straight away. _Oh God, it_ is _him_ , she thought. She recalled that his eyes had turned white when that incident when he first put on the crown, but she had thrown her ring at him and had left him so fast. Was this what he had become? Did he look like this in her pre-altered world as well? Indeed, Betty could see her ex-fiancé in this man, but...what even was he anymore?

Betty smiled a little, trying to lighten the mood.

“Really? ‘Hello Betty?’ Since when have you been so formal, especially with me?”

“I, uh...” Simon tugged the collar of his shirt. He then revealed his pointed teeth in a screwed-up, awkward grin. “...hey, Princess?”

The sight of his teeth elicited a gasp from her. When he realized why she looked horrified, he held a hand over his mouth.

“I-It’s no big deal, the, erm, teeth,” Betty stammered.

“No, it is really freaky, so I understand if you...um...”

Both of them let the awkward conversation trail off. Betty rubbed her arm several times before finally asking:

“So, what are you going in there for?”

Simon shrugged as he took a step inside. “Eh, I have nowhere else to go, really.”

  
He held the door open for her, and Betty followed him down the hallway in silence. She couldn’t find the right words to say to him. But what could a person say to her ex-fiancé that she—

Then Betty remembered; he _wasn’t_ her ex-fiance. At least, not the iteration of him that she had thrown her engagement ring at after his little episode all of those years ago. Still, that fact did little to alleviate her situation; it just made everything that much harder for her. Should she reveal to him that he wasn’t her Simon, and therefore, she wasn’t his Betty? Would revealing that truth destroy any sort of happiness he might have left in him? Should she even mention anything about the past, which could give away who she was and who she wasn’t? She had hoped that seeing him again might kill some of the guilt she felt about the past, and perhaps ease his pain a little. But in that moment, Betty just felt confused and unsure of what to do.

“You’re awfully quiet. Something on your mind?”

Before Betty could answer him, he pointed out a light pouring out from an opened door. He quickened his pace, and when he reached the doorway, he peered into the room.

“It’s a drawing room! A really nice one, too!” Simon called out to her. As he stepped inside, Betty rushed up to the door and said:

“Wait, sweetheart! We probably shouldn’t be...”

Betty’s voice tapered off as she stood in the doorway. Already, he was crouched down, scanning through the collection of books offered by the tiny library of the room.

“...barging in.”

“I’ve seen people go in and out of this mansion all the time,” he said. “Besides, no one seems to really ‘own’ anything around here, if you know what I mean. So why the Helsinki not?” His eyes brightened a bit at the sight of one of the books on the shelf. “Holy cow! Whoever got their hands on such a rare edition of this series was really lucky!”

She couldn’t help but smile. She had always loved it whenever her Simon had found something he thought to be new and exciting because he would regress to a state of childlike wonder. Perhaps this iteration of Simon wasn’t as different from her Simon as she had initially thought.

“Okay, shark teeth.” Betty walked inside and crouched down beside him. “If no one really ‘owns’ anything, like you said, then I’m sure you won’t mind if I take these.”

On the word “these,” she pinched the temple of his glasses between her two fingers, attempting to pull them off of his face. As his grin widened, he snapped his jaws at her, causing her to stumble backwards. She rose to a sitting position, and as both of them laughed, she made an obscene gesture at him. He snorted in response.

“Love you too, Princess.”

Betty stood up, surveying the room. At the other end sat a dusty Dual CS 505-3 record player. On top of it lay a limited selection of LP records, most of which were by artists from the early twentieth century that Betty didn’t recognize. However, one made her stop and utter:

“Nice.”

“What’s up?” Simon asked from across the room.

“Whoever used to live here owned an LP version of Tom Waits’ _Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards_.”

“Hang on. You like Tom Waits?”

“You didn’t know that?”

Betty pulled out the “Bawlers” disc and set it in place. She then lowered the needle onto the edge of the record.

  
_The sky's as deep as it can be_   
_Bend down the branches_   
_Close your eyes and you will see_   
_Bend down the branches_   


Betty stood still, massaging her arm as Waits crooned on. Simon approached her from behind and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She shuddered a little, not expecting just how cold his touch would be. Just as he began to pull away, feeling foolish for startling her with his chilled skin, she grabbed the fabric of his jacket to keep his arms from moving. The faded scent of his mild cologne tickled her nostrils; oh, how she had missed the smell. Their bodies gently swayed in place to the slow rhythm of the tune, which ended in less than two minutes. Before the next track began, Betty turned around and pressed her body up against Simon’s, wrapping her arms around his back. He in turn held her torso, and the two rocked from side to side.

  
_You can never hold back spring_   
_You can be sure I will never stop believing_   
_The blushing rose, it will climb..._   


“I think there’s a lot we have to talk about,” Betty said at last. Simon looked at her with saddened eyes.

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

Betty bit her lip before continuing. “First off—and I know this is gonna sound silly—but why are we doing this? So much has happened to the both of us, and now we’re slow dancing like nothing ever went wrong? I don’t know about you, Simon, but this is all just so surreal to me. I don’t know if I can really make sense of it.”

He sighed. “I don’t know if I can either. Especially not after I...y’know...”

She nestled her head against his chest and fluttered her eyes closed.

“I know.” Betty felt a melancholic smile tug at the corners of her mouth. “It’s funny you say that. I don’t remember much about how mine went. Just that there was a green light, and then it was over.”

“Green light?”

“Yeah. I’m guessing it was that ‘mutagenic’ bomb project.”

“What?”

He pulled away from her, staring at her with eyes wide with disbelief.

“Th-that can’t be.”

“Look, this may come as a shock to you, but—”

“No, that’s not—” His eyes wandered around the room frantically as he grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled it back. “Princess, I-I froze that thing midair!”

Betty’s eyes also widened. “You _what?!_ ”

“Yeah, and I was sure I froze it in such a way that it couldn’t—”

“Please, Simon.”

“Huh?”

She sighed, a bit of her irritation bleeding through. “I know you like to use humor to lighten dark situations, but don’t joke around about something like this.”

He shook his head. “This isn’t a joke, Betty.”

 

Betty felt a rush of rage course through her. As much as she wanted to believe him, what he was saying just seemed too ridiculous, and perhaps a bit too upsetting, for her to fathom.

“Okay, seriously, enough is enough.”

“I’m telling you, it really happened! They dropped the bomb and I—”

“Ugh, I swear to God, if I hear one more word about you freezing that thing, I’ll—”

“You’ll what?!” Simon snapped. “Throw your ring at me and tell me you won’t give two shits if you never see me again?!”

Simon appeared to be surprised by his sudden outburst, but his hurt overwhelmed his judgment in that moment.

“Simon,” Betty said, clutching her chest, “what are you talking about?”

“Oh what, you don’t remember that last part, is that it?”

“H-hey, snap out of it!”

“That must be real nice, being able to move along with your life while conveniently forgetting just how much you hurt someone you once said you loved!”

“ _Except I never fucking_ said _any of that!!_ ”

Betty held a hand to her mouth. Her confused eyes watered as Simon’s anger began to suddenly melt away.

“Love, I-I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that, I...”

Betty then figured out why his expression was softening. A look soon overcame his features that told Betty of the thoughts running through his head. She knew he was making the connection, realizing who she was not.

“You’re...” Simon nibbled at his lip and lowered his gaze to the floor. “You’re not _my_ Betty, are you? Not the one that threw...that said...”

“No,” she finished. She heard his voice beginning to break, and she couldn’t stand it. She also couldn’t bear the thought of what his Betty had said to him before she had left, and that she probably never saw him again, never truly said goodbye to him before he—

Betty turned the other way. It overwhelmed her to think about what this Simon had lost.

 _What’s wrong with you Betty,_ she thought, _you turned your back on him once before, and now you’re doing it again?_

She heard Simon shifting behind her. She turned her head and, from the corner of her eye, she saw him sitting down, leaning against the back of a couch. He sniffled.

“Oh no,” Betty said, “Simon, don’t you start.”

“H-how long?” he asked in a voice that sounded rough and exhausted. “How long have you known?”

Betty felt a hot tear stream down her cheek.

“This whole time. And I know I should’ve told you sooner. I was wrong not to do that. But...”

As soon as she felt snot dripping from her nostrils, she had to wipe her face with her sleeve. Indeed, Simon would know she was crying, but her breaking voice probably gave her away anyway.

“...I just wanted you to be happy. _Any_ ‘you’ to be happy. And j-just knowing she said that to you before she left, knowing what you still did in spite of that...” She sank to the floor, bending her upper body forward while remaining in a kneeling position. “God, I can’t stand it. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

Betty’s muffled sobs were the only sounds in the air for a minute or so. She then felt Simon’s cold hand on her shoulder, and did everything in her power to not flinch at his chilled touch. He began to rub circles on her back of her neck with his thumbs, and as he did so, she gradually lifted her upper body upright. Once she felt calmer, she turned to look at him. He looked just as broken as she imagined he would be, but this time, she wasn’t going to leave him like that. Sucking in a deep breath, Betty crawled closer to Simon and hugged him as hard as she could. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his cheek against the top of her head.

“You haven’t met with him again yet? ‘Your’ Simon?”

“No, and considering how long it feels like I’ve been dead, God knows if and when I will.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, if you ever do find him, what will you say to him?”

Betty spent a few moments in silence as she mulled over Simon’s question.

“To be honest, I don’t know if I can give a clear-cut answer to that. There’s just too much I’d want to say to him. I mean, part of me feels that I don’t have to apologize for leaving if I felt that someone who said he loved me appeared to be suddenly threatening my life if I refused to join him in his ‘reign of ice and snow.’ How is someone supposed to react to that, if there even is a way someone is ‘supposed’ to react? On the other hand, there’s also a part of me that always felt a twinge of guilt for not staying and realizing that the man I loved was under the spell of an artifact so...so...”

“Lovecraftian?”

Betty cringed at his word choice, but nodded in agreement, as it was the honest, brutal truth.

“Yeah. And now that I’m seeing what that thing did to you, what it probably did to the Simon I knew...that guilt is stronger than ever before.”

She looked up at him.

“What about you? What would you say to your Betty if you ever saw her again?”

Simon pursed his lips before answering.

“Well, none of what I said to you, that’s for sure. But I guess...I guess I’d ask her if we’re here, in a place where life and time don’t matter, could we just start again, maybe? I know we’ll have baggage from our previous lives, and for both of us, it’ll be hard to let go. God knows you had to see the baggage I was holding on to—by the way, I’m really sorry. You didn’t deserve that.” He kissed her temple before continuing. “And neither will she, if and when we see each other again.”

“But what if she rejects you again?” Betty felt awful for interrupting, especially with that unpleasant thought, but it would not stop plaguing her mind. “I don’t know what her reasons for leaving you were, or if they were even the same reasons I left my Simon. But whatever happened, it seems to me that you two parted on really, really bad terms, and if your reunion doesn’t go well...I don’t know. Even though I know this is wishful thinking on my part, I just really wish there was something I could say or do to make everything better. For the both of you.”

They sat in silence, save for the noise of the record continuing to spin, even though the music had ended a while ago. Betty stood up to turn the disc over when Simon gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

“To answer your question, I really don’t know if there’s anything you can say or do. Aside from everything you’ve said and done for me already.”

Simon rose to his feet. Betty brushed the hair out of his eyes to see that they were wet. However, he smiled warmly.  
“Just knowing a Betty cares, even after everything that happened, even after I became this...this _goblin-thing_...that means so much.” He gave a soft chuckle as a tear streamed down his face. “Wow, I bet I really fudged up how I worded that, but—”

Betty cut him off with an affectionate gesture she used to do to her Simon whenever he began to ramble; she pushed his glasses by the bridge up his nose. He blushed and fell silent.

“I’m really glad,” Betty said, “because believe it or not, what you just told me means a lot to me, too. If I never find my Simon again, if I never get the chance to ask him ‘can we just try again, maybe,’ at least I know I did something for a Simon out here.” Betty felt her cheeks burn. “That sounded really corny, didn’t it?”

Betty gave a little shriek as she felt Simon gently dip her body. Just as they were about to kiss, the tip of his long nose rammed into her high cheekbone, which caught him by surprise and caused him to stumble a bit. As Betty felt his grip loosen and her body fell toward the ground, she made one last reach for support by grabbing his beard. Though he cried out in pain, he tried to reposition himself quickly so he could catch her and prevent her from hitting the floor. In the end, he slipped forward and fell on top of her. Both sat up, their hearts still racing from the adrenaline rush. Betty then began to laugh until she couldn’t catch her breath, and in little time, Simon joined in on her hysterics. Once he stopped laughing, he stood up and offered her his hand. She grasped it tight as he hoisted her up.

“Okay, um...” He rubbed the back of his head. “Can we try that again? Without me leaning you forward and dropping you like a noodly donk this time, I mean.”

Betty decided to let Simon worry for a few moments as she turned her back to him and flipped the record. Once the music resumed, she placed her hands on his head and pulled it down so they gently bumped foreheads. She then clasped her hands around his back when he kept his head bent down and his forehead against her own.

Nothing could trouble Betty in that moment; the quiet, calming rhythm of breathing and Tom Waits in the background made every dark thought, fear and doubt that plagued Betty’s mind turn into nothing. What happened in her past, and what lay ahead in her life after death no longer mattered.

The only thing her mind and soul needed was this moment in this present.

And when she fluttered her eyes open and saw Simon’s peaceful expression, she knew he felt the same way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading the one-shot I have been wanting to write forever! Please rate and review, I'd appreciate it! ^_^


End file.
